As I drove into work today, I saw that gas has risen to $3.36 a gallon!  It got me thinking about how the costs of anything that needs to be transported (i.e. flowers, food, people) are increasing.  And since the wedding industry is filled with small businesses that don’t have the huge budgets of a national company, many may have to pass on some of the cost to their customers: you the bride.  I’m not saying all wedding vendors will, but some may have to.  So for today, I thought I’d pass on some budget saving ideas to help cut your costs:

• Consider having your ceremony and reception at the same location
• Do you own hair and makeup
• Use online RSVP with your wedding website (hint hint: we offer that free) rather than send RSVP cards
• Use fewer flowers and more candles or even buy silk flowers
• Make your own centerpieces (there’s lots of great DIY projects out there)
• Combine favors and place cards
• Only have your cake/cupcakes for dessert (I see so much dessert get wasted anyway)
• Only serve beer and wine and limit bar time if need be
• And think about getting married during the day or on a sunday

There’s lots of ways to cut costs, but the idea here is be smart with your money right now and be conscious if your guests have to drive or fly a ways to get to your wedding.  You can still have a great wedding and spend less.

This weekend we released a few updates to our website that we’re really excited about. Here’s some high level details:

The first upgrade we made is online RSVP is now available via your wedding website. You have been asking for this feature and now you’ve got it. Online RSVP is a great way to save money if you don’t want to send return RSVP cards to your guest. Just have them RSVP online with your wedding website.

The second update is to our wedding vendor search page. We have stream lined our search page to not only include vendors with a map, but you’ll now see local events and promotions on the right hand side. This improvement makes search for local events and promotions (deals/discounts) even easier.

We’re constantly making improvements so if you have a suggestion for a new feature or feedback on existing features, we want to know. Click here to leave a suggestion or feedback!

Are you planning on creating a wedding website for your wedding? Well make sure to look at WeddingWire’s free wedding websites. With WedddingWire you have the ability to add lots of photos and information, but more importantly, you can use the best the web has to offer. Integrate things like slideshows from Slide.com, polls from Polldaddy.com, video with YouTube, music from Last.FM and many more.

Here’s a demo of what your wedding website could look like. DEMO